Ingersoll

was stationed in Tennessee in 1862 when on Dec.
18 the Confederate raider, Gen. Nathan B. For-
rest, captured its colonel and some hundreds of
its men (J. A. Wyeth, Life of Gen. N. B. For-
rest, 1899, P- IX3)- Ingersoll was soon paroled,
and, having no hope of exchange, took his dis-
charge from the army on June 30, 1863.

He was already marked as one who questioned
the bases of the Christian religion. The scientific
and theological storm that broke upon the United
States in the decade after the publication of the
Origin of Species found Ingersoll ready to wel-
come it as justifying his doubts. His personal
charm and the correct demeanor of his life pro-
tected him from antipathies that might otherwise
have pushed him outside the ranks of respectable
society, but there were many social hazards in
his position. He took to himself the word "ag-
nostic" as soon as Huxley coined it, and assumed
an aggressive free-lance against those who at-
tacked him. His skill with juries made him a
deadly debater. Soon he was on the platform ex-
plaining agnosticism, and here he developed a
skill that attracted huge audiences, whether they
accepted his teachings or not "Splendidly en-
dowed as he was he could have won great dis-
tinction in the field of politics had he so chosen.
But he was determined to enlighten the world
concerning the 'Mistakes of Moses/ That threw
him out of the race" (Chicago Tribune, July 22,
1899). His friends believed that after his service
as attorney-general he might have become gov-
ernor of Illinois except for his heresy. He con-
tinued to practise law in Peoria, and to lecture
on religion.

In politics Ingersoll was a Democrat until the
call for troops in 1861. He was as unable to ac-
cept dogmatic orthodoxy in politics as in re-
ligion. As candidate for Congress from the 4th
Illinois district in 1860, he was overridden by a
Republican opponent who gained strength from
the fact that Ingersoll attacked the dogmas of his
own party on slavery and the Dred Scott de-
cision. He came out of the army a Republican
and a nationalist, unable to draw any sharp line
between his party and the natioa A delegate to
the Republican convention at Cincinnati in 1876,
Ingersoll was selected to present the name of
James G. Blaine. His nominating speech (Works,
IX, 55-60) was the triumph of the convention.
It failed to procure the selection of Blaine as
candidate, for the forces of opposition were too
powerful for any eloquence to override, but it
fastened upon Blaine for life the epithet of
"plumed knight" It brought Ingersoll recogni-
tion as one of the greatest of American orators
and made him a national figure overnight. He

Ingersoll

performed an exhausting service speaking for
Hayes during the campaign and was thereafter
in constant demand at public celebrations and
party rallies.

In 1879 he moved his home to Washington,
and transferred his legal practice to the larger
field of federal litigation. He received great fees
and spent them; careless in accumulation, he
was generous in the remission of obligations to
himself. The most notorious of his cases ended
in triumph for him, if not in the vindication of
his clients. As chief counsel for former Senator
Stephen W. Dorsey [q.v."] and others charged
with conspiracy in connection with the "star
routes" [see Gar field, James Abram], he pro-
cured, first a mistrial, and finally, on June 14,
1883, the acquittal of the two chief defendants.
In 1885 he moved his home to New York, nearer
to the great clients and the enthusiastic audiences
from whom he drew his living and his repute.

Typical of his once-famous lectures on re-
ligious subjects were: 'The Gods" (1872);
"Some Mistakes of Moses" (1879); "What Must
We Do to Be Saved" (1880); "About the
Holy Bible" (1894); 'Why I Am an Agnostic1'
(1896); "Superstition" (1898); "The Devil"
(1899). Often engaged in religious controversy,
he was commonly more clever than his oppo-
nents. He lectured also, among others, on Burns,
Shakespeare, Humboldt, Lincoln, Thomas Paine,
and Voltaire. In the campaign of 1896 he spoke
often and effectively for the gold standard, but
broke down partially in the late autumn and soon
thereafter retired from practice, if not from the
platform. Less than three years later he died at
Dobbs Ferry, N. Y., of an affection of the heart.

[Ingersoll is fully displayed in the Dresden edition of
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (12 vols., 1900, re-
printed 1902, 1909, 1910). Here are his addresses, his
lectures, and even many of the interviews which he
gave freely to the press wherever he went. H. E. Kit-
tredge, Ingersoll, A Biog. Appreciation (1911) is^ lauda-
tory and inaccurate. There are excellent obituaries and
editorials in N. Y. Times, and Chicago Tribune, July
22, 1899. See also L. D. Avery, A Genealogy of the
Ingersoll Family in America (1926).] jr. L. p.

INGERSOLL, ROBERT HAWLEY (Dec.
26, iSsp-Sept 4,1928), merchant and manufac-
turer, the son of Orville Boudinot and Mary
Elizabeth (Beers) Ingersoll, was born at Delta,
Eaton County, Mich., the eighth child of a fam-
ily of nine. He was descended from John Inger-
soll, a native of England, who emigrated with
his brother Richard to America in 1629 and set-
tled first at Salem, Mass. He was sent to com-
mon school until he was ten but then his help
was needed on the farm and except for three
terms scattered over as many years after this, his
schooling was ended He worked the farm with

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